Editorial: Clock runs down as funding rests in an empty chamber

Published 8:33 pm, Sunday, August 6, 2017

For the first time in Illinois history, according to the Illinois comptroller, the state might miss its first August payment to public schools. Possibly the second payment, too.

The reason for the delay is familiar. The Democrat-controlled General Assembly and the Republican governor, Bruce Rauner, cannot agree on a path forward. This time, it’s over school funding.

Not even the possibility of schools unable to keep their doors open galvanizes lawmakers in this deadbeat state to act with urgency. Rauner issued an amendatory veto of the Democrats’ school funding bill on Tuesday, starting a 15-day clock during which the Senate has to act. But the Senate has not even set a date to reconvene. Its schedule for the month of August is blank. Same with the House, outside of one committee hearing.

That doesn’t mean lawmakers won’t at some point return to Springfield to address the governor’s veto. But they sure seem determined to run down the clock. To build pressure. To stoke panic. To fuel disunity. That’s how governing, if you call it that, takes place in this state — always in a pressure cooker and often with lousy results.

Some senators aren’t even in Illinois. They’re in Boston with the National Conference of State Legislatures. Sen. Toi Hutchinson, D-Olympia Fields, will be sworn in as an officer of the organization. The trip was planned months ago, she tells us, and she’ll fly back “on a moment’s notice” if Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, calls members back to Springfield.

So far, that hasn’t happened.

Since Rauner’s veto, a handful of lawmakers have been negotiating to find middle ground between the bill the General Assembly passed and the changes Rauner demands. Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, who sponsored the bill in the Senate, has been on the phone with Democrats and Republicans, trying to wade toward a new version that both parties would accept. But time is running out.

Also holding up progress is a lack of data. The Illinois State Board of Education is expected to release numbers today that show how each school district would be affected by the changes Rauner is seeking. We too are waiting on those numbers.

But no Illinois taxpayer, especially those with kids in public schools, should have been forced into this predicament in the first place. It’s another black mark on Illinois’ sorry scorecard.

Remember, Democrats passed the funding bill on May 31, stuffing into it extra money for Chicago Public Schools at the last minute. Then Cullerton sat on the bill for two months instead of sending it to Rauner, knowing the governor was poised with his veto pen. And for what, that two-month delay? A purposeful running-down of the clock. A way to foster turmoil.

Democrats knew the state owes schools their first payment on Aug. 10. They stalled anyway.

Now they continue to run down the clock, playing chicken with that 15-day, constitutionally mandated deadline to act on Rauner’s veto in the Senate. There, senators could accept Rauner’s changes, which is unlikely. They could pass a new version of school funding reform. They could override the veto. Or they could let the whole thing collapse by doing nothing.

If the Senate takes action, the issue shifts to the House, which passed the original bill with the bare minimum of 60 votes. Republicans would need to join forces with Democrats to override the governor’s veto, if it comes to that. And Republicans might be more willing to crack by then if schools in their districts could not open or stay open.

See how this works? Whatever it takes for my side to squeeze yours.

Governing in this state is a cynical gamble of brinkmanship, forcing those who actually depend on help to accept chaos and uncertainty. In this case, the captives are schools and the kids they serve. Crisis after crisis, only the pawns’ names change. You can fill in the blank.